An application may utilize one or more data objects. For example, a human resources application might include a user interface area that displays a number of different data objects, and each data object could represent a different employee. Moreover, each data object might be associated with a set of attribute identifiers, such as employee name, employee telephone number, etc., and each attribute identifier might have a particular value for that particular employee. In some cases, a user might be interested in reusing information within a data objected in another part of the application or even in an entirely different application. For example, a user might want to copy an employee's name and email address from a human resources application into a payroll application (e.g., associated with the same enterprise).
It is known that the user can individually review information in a data object and decide to “cut-and-paste” information into another application part or another application as appropriate. Such an approach, however, can be a time consuming, repetitive, and error-prone process. It is also known that an application designer can create a map that defines how certain data object attributes should be used in other application parts. For example, an application designer might realize that “PO Number” in one application part should be mapped to “Purchase Order Identifier” in another application part. This process can also be labor-intensive and error prone, especially when a substantial number of applications and/or data objects are involved. Moreover, such an approach might not even be feasible with respect to applications that are not known to the designer at design time (e.g., because he or she is not aware of what choices will be available to the system when a user eventually wants to reuse data object information). As a result, the information in data objects will not be available for efficient reuse “on-the-fly” as a user accesses new applications.
It may therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods to facilitate a semi-automatic reuse of data object information across applications and/or across application parts in an efficient and accurate manner.